Epidemiologic survey of pemphigus vulgaris with oral manifestations in northern Greece: retrospective study of 129 patients.

Objective: To evaluate the epidemiology of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) in a Greek population and to compare it with other countries.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was conducted based on the records of 129 patients (41 males and 88 females) with PV who visited the Department of the Oral Medicine and Maxillofacial Pathology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the State Hospital for Skin and Venereal Diseases of Thessaloniki, Greece, between 1985 and 2004. A group of 73 individuals was used as controls.

Detection of pemphigus desmoglein 1 and desmoglein 3 autoantibodies and pemphigoid BP180 autoantibodies in saliva and comparison with serum values.

Although there is much literature on the detection of pemphigus and pemphigoid autoantibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum, nothing is known about their presence in saliva. The aim of this study was to evaluate the salivary levels of these autoantibodies in pemphigus and pemphigoid patients. Autoantibodies against desmoglein3, desmoglein1, and BP180 were assayed, by ELISA, in serum and saliva samples of patients and healthy controls.

Candidal overgrowth in diabetic patients: potential predisposing factors.

This study was designed to investigate the potential factors that influence the prevalence of the oral carriage of Candida species in patients with type II diabetes mellitus. One hundred and twenty-eight diabetic patients (68 males and 60 females, mean age 54 +/- 7 years) were sequentially enrolled along with 84 (44 males and 40 females mean age 52 +/- 8 years) healthy subjects. Samples were obtained by swabbing the oral mucosa of all participants.

Oral findings in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the role of dental parameters that may contribute in increasing apneic activity in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).

Method And Materials: A total of 152 subjects (121 males and 31 females ) were examined from October 1999 until September 2001, for sleep disorder symptoms. All patients underwent polysomnography.

Diagnosis of a maxillary brown tumor associated with hyperparathyroidism secondary to chronic renal failure--a case report.

Brown tumor associated with hyperparathyroidism secondary to chronic renal failure has been increasingly documented of late. This intraosseous giant cell lesion is indistinguishable from a central giant cell granuloma and is considered as an unusual local complication of renal osteodystrophy. This report presents a case of a maxillary brown tumor in an uremic, non-hemodialysis patient with secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Encephalocraniocutaneous lipomatosis accompanied by maxillary compound odontoma and juvenile angiofibroma: report of a case.

Background: Encephalocraniocutaneous lipomatosis (ECCL) is a rare neurocutaneous syndrome characterized by congenital cutaneous, ocular, and neurologic abnormalities, which may be pronounced in the head and neck.

Case: In this article we present a well-documented case of a six-year-old boy with ECCL associated with oral manifestations. In this case, typical features such as large lipomatous brown pigmented plaques of the top of the skull with overlying alopecia, ptotic eyelid with decreased function, bulbar conjunctiva lipodermoid, microcalcifications and atrophy of cerebral parenchyma, and the widening of the frontal subarachnoid space and the fissure of Sylvius were accompanied by intraoral lesions, maxillary compound odontoma, and juvenile extranasopharyngeal angiofibroma of the gingiva.

Comparison of salivary IgA and systemic IgA and IgG antibodies to Saccharomyces cerevisiae in HIV-infected subjects.

Our objective was to investigate the concentrations of IgA and IgG antibodies to Saccharomyces cerevisiae in whole saliva and serum samples from HIV-infected patients and to compare them with the corresponding antibody values of healthy controls. A cross-sectional design was used. The test group consisted of 23 HIV-infected male individuals, aged 20-41 years old, free of any other systemic disease.